``Rent regulation has insidious consequences. Unable to recoup their costs, landlords invest less. Conditions in buildings, especially those with lower-income tenants, worsen. Higher-income renters spend their own money on upkeep, and the additional costs wipe out much of the money they save from cheaper rent. "The benefits of rent control, from the tenant's standpoint, are likely to decline steadily over time," a 1997 study by the Department of Housing and Urban Development found.

What we're most concerned about is how rent regulation harms the very class of person it is designed to help -- the renter. (It's not so fundamentally bothersome that property values don't soar to endless heights -- after all, homes are ultimately places to live, first and foremost).